The asparagus soup prepared by Montreal chef and cooking professor Igor Brotto looked — and tasted — like essence of spring: earthy and fresh and green; a quinoa salad tossed together by colleague Olivier Guiriec with green peas and corn kernels, little florets of broccoli and cauliflower, fragrant flat-leaf parsley and a bracing dressing of olive oil and just-squeezed lemon juice was bright, crisp and deeply satisfying.

Both are part of a collection of 275 equally delightful recipes in the just-published Vegetarian Kitchen Table Cookbook (Robert Rose, $27.95) by the two, professors at l'Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Quebec. It's the English translation of Le grand livre de la cuisine végétarienne, commissioned by Les Editions de l’Homme and published in 2010, and one in a spate of new books in an increasingly popular category: vegetarian cookbooks aimed at people who have not necessarily embraced the lifestyle full time but know that, for philosophical or environmental or other reasons, they want less meat in their diets. In the past few weeks alone, half a dozen such books have hit my desk.

"The marketplace for the broad category of vegetarian books is expanding dramatically," observed Bob Dees, president of Robert Rose, Canadian publishers of health books and cookbooks. The interest extends to sub-categories, he said, with vegan cooking as popular as vegetarian cooking was five years ago.

"Vegetarian cooking is no longer considered with contempt as the domain of a few health fanatics," as Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette observes in Les bons petites plats du monastère (Les Editions de l’Homme), the French translation of his 2010 book, The Pure Joy of Monastery Cooking.

"Our dietary habits have evolved so much in recent years that lots of people today observe a diet that is meatfree or nearly meat-free without considering themselves strict vegetarians."

Some cut back on meat for philosophical or religious reasons, he writes, while others are thinking of their health or their wallets. The global village we call home exposes us to culinary traditions from around the world, many of them vegetarian.

Although strict vegetarians exclude all animal products, including cheese, milk, eggs and honey, and eat only plant foods, Brother Victor-Antoine uses the word vegetarian in its broadest sense — to denote the several types of vegetarians and, as he calls them, semi-vegetarians: some vegetarian diets incorporate eggs and cheese, like the diet in the majority of monasteries. Some people eat fish and chicken, but no red meat; others even eat red meat occasionally.

Opponents say there’s no such thing as mostly vegetarian — in the same way as you can’t be mostly pregnant.

But does how people identify themselves really matter? New York Times writer Mark Bittman calls himself a "less-meatatarian" — someone who eats 70 per cent less meat than he used to. And Nettie Cornish and Pat Crocker maintain in Everyday Flexitarian: Recipes for Vegetarians & Meat Lovers Alike (Whitecap Books, 2011, $29.95) that flexitarians, who maintain a mainly vegetarian diet but do on occasion eat meat, make up 30 to 40 per cent of the North American population — and their numbers are growing.

Recipes in this latest crop of books make judicious use of vegetables, legumes and grains. Some include sections featuring meatless versions of such popular dishes as chili and burgers. Tofu, which still elicits eye-rolling from some quarters, makes an appearance but is hardly a mainstay.

The goal of Brotto and Guiriec's cookbook "is to initiate people into the idea of vegetarianism as part of their lives — not to pressure them, and not to tell them that it has to be full time," said Guiriec.

Neither he nor Brotto, his colleague and fellow professor at l’Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Quebec, is vegetarian — and, indeed, save for Brother Victor-Antoine, nor are the authors of any of the new vegetarian books I perused.

"We are conscious, though, of eating less meat and that’s what we teach: eat more legumes and vegetables and cut back on meat," Brotto said. "I like meat — but I don’t have to eat it every day."

Indeed, meat is not necessary for health, as Laurie David observes in The Family Dinner (Grand Central Life & Style, 2010): the protein found in meat is present in other foods, including cheese, beans, edamame, peas, tofu, nuts, lentils and quinoa.

Brotto wondered: "It seems that it is always protein that is front and centre in a meal. Why can’t vegetables be elevated to that status? There is such noblesse to vegetables when they are in season: their colour, their fragrance."

And they’re not just nice to look at: vegetables are good for us, too, Guiriec added. And they taste good.

In response to those who maintain that vegetarian fare is earnest and bland, he and Brotto pointed out that lots of Indian cooking, for instance, is vegetarian. And you wouldn’t call it bland or earnest. Ditto for Chinese cooking and lots of European cooking: Pissaladiere. Gazpacho. Eggplant parmigiana. Vegetarian, all of them — and none of them tasteless.

From their fine, well-conceived book, illustrated with terrific colour photos by ITHQ photographer Pierre Beauchemin and filled with easy-to-follow recipes yielding excellent results, and the other new cookbooks I studied, it’s clear that the authors have set the bar high: to equip readers with a can-do mindset and with skills and techniques needed to create appealing and satisfying vegetarian meals.

"What we want to do with this book is to get people to learn how to manage," said Guiriec.

One of the things they want to get across to readers is that vegetarian cooking is flexible: you can make the quinoa salad in their book even if you don’t have the cauliflower and broccoli suggested in the recipe. Simply substitute other vegetables. Use fresh coriander instead of the parsley, if you like.

Look at vegetarian cooking as a kind of story, Brotto suggested: go shopping, with a view to finding produce that appeals to you. Then figure out what to do with it once you have it home by checking out their cookbook’s index for recipes or simply for inspiration. Leave the cookbook out on the kitchen counter.

Dees of Robert Rose, reflecting on the increased interest in vegetarian cooking, observed: "I think, fundamentally, consumers feel more in control with sources of fruits and vegetables."

No food is entirely protected from the risk of contamination, he said, but the risks with meat, fish and poultry are higher — even with the safest processing.

Many meat eaters are increasingly mindful of where and how the animals providing that meat are raised. Nearly all the meat bought from supermarkets or eaten in restaurants comes from factory farms, David writes in The Family Dinner, "where animals are raised in miserable and unsanitary conditions, and fed foods their bodies are not naturally suited to digest."

Factory farming relies heavily on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and antibiotics. Fully 70 per cent of the world’s farmland is involved in livestock production, David writes. "The carbon footprint of a hamburger is enormous because you have to include all the fuels that went into producing the fertilizer and pumping the irrigation water to grow the corn that fed the cow, as well as the greenhouse gas emissions that result from converting forestland to grazing land and from processing and transporting that burger."

Eating red meat is associated with a sharply increased risk of death from cancer and heart disease — and the more of it you eat, the greater the risk, according to a new study based on data from two studies involving more than 121,000 people. Previous studies have linked red meat consumption and mortality but the new results, published this month in Archives of Internal Medicine, show the link to be surprisingly strong, according to the New York Times.

The converse is also true — that a diet incorporating more vegetables, fruits and fibre and less saturated fat may protect against certain forms of cancer as well as diabetes and heart disease. That’s according to 150 plats végé savoureux (Les Editions Transcontinental), a new vegetarian cookbook from Coup de Pouce, the French-language counterpart to Canadian Living magazine. And vegetarians generally consume less cholesterol and saturated fat than regular meateaters, as well as more fibre, vitamins and anti-oxidants.

For years, Pam Anderson was reluctant to even consider going vegetarian. "Not me," she’d say. "I love my food my way. In time, though she "started to feel like the smoker who continued the habit long after everyone else had quit," she writes in Cook Without a Book: Meatless Meals (Rodale, 2011). "It was time to stop talking like I cared about the treatment of animals on factory farms and all the ramifications of that system and start eating like it."

Full-time vegetarianism was "a way of life I didn’t think I could sustain," she said, so she decided to go meatless two days a week — Mondays and Wednesdays — and to buy only meat products raised responsibly and sustainably for the other days. "Better for me, better for the earth."

On a broader scale, the Meatless Monday movement (meatlessmonday. com), launched in 2003, has spread to nearly two dozen countries. Paul, Stella and Mary McCartney launched the Meat Free Monday campaign in the United Kingdom in 2009; this month the Meat Free Monday Cookbook (Kyle Books, $29.95), featuring contributions from the McCartney clan as well as celebrity supporters, was published in the United States.

Much as Anderson loves recipes, she believes they can be a hindrance in everyday cooking. "To be a part-or full-time vegetarian for good, you’ve got to find a way to integrate the new way into your old life."

A lifestyle adjustment is required, she says, along with an abiding belief that you’re doing the right thing. That — and a decently stocked pantry, fridge and freezer. You don’t want to run out of canned beans or tomatoes, quick-cooking grains, olive oil, vinegar, garlic and onions, for instance: most good cooking starts with these staples anyway, Anderson writes. And you’ll want to keep on hand larger stocks of such ingredients as vegetables, eggs and cheese.

The more self-assured and confident people grow around vegetarian cuisine, the more willing they become to try things and, in turn, to discover flavours, textures, aromas and colours, says Brother Victor-Antoine, the author of several vegetarian cookbooks and a resident monk at Our Lady of the Resurrection Monastery near Millbrook, N.Y., where he is cook and gardener, tending the two gardens and greenhouse providing produce and herbs for the monastery.

He wrote his first cookbook, From a Monastery Kitchen, in 1976 to help raise funds to buy property for his order. The original edition was reprinted 14 times and followed by a revised edition 20 years later. The book has been translated into several languages and sold more than a million copies.

Brother Victor-Antoine’s current book, Les bons plats du monastère, is replete with lovely and uncomplicated recipes for dishes ranging from crepes and frittatas to stuffed vegetables and pasta dishes as well as sauces — and the most beautiful photos. For him, the recipes show the infinite possibilities open to those who embrace vegetarian cooking, with the possibilities it offers for flavourful and healthful eating, for the opportunity to taste, as he puts it, "the pleasures of the table."

Use only the tender green parts of the asparagus stems for this soup. Save the tips for another recipe. Or if you prefer, garnish the soup with asparagus tips cooked in boiling salted water. The soup can also be served hot, although its stunning green colour will fade. When chef Igor Brotto prepared the dish for us, he transferred the pot of cooked asparagus stalks directly to a large container of ice to stop the cooking — and preserve the vegetable’s colour.

2 to 3 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup very finely chopped onion

1 pound green asparagus stalks, thinly sliced

11/2 cups cold water

1/2 cup heavy or whipping

(35 per cent) cream, added to soup or else whipped for garnish

In a pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add asparagus and cook, stirring, until liquid is released, about 5 minutes. Add water, increase heat to medium-high and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and simmer just until asparagus is tender, about 10 minutes.

In batches as necessary, transfer to blender — or else use hand-held immersion blender in the pot and puree until smooth, adding cream, if desired. Transfer to a bowl and season with salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about six hours. Adjust seasoning. Ladle into chilled bowls. Whip cream and garnish soup, if desired, and/or garnish with an asparagus tip.

Quinoa Salad

Serves 4

Both white and red quinoa are widely available in well-stocked grocery stores as well as health food and bulk stores. Using both colours adds a nice look — cook the two together in the same pot, suggests co-author Olivier Guiriec — and texture, since the red is slightly crunchier than the white.

But if you have just one colour or want to use just the one, it’s fine.

The recipe calls for a quick vegetable stock in which to cook the quinoa. It’s worth it, although it does call on you to have saved onion trimmings as well as mushroom trimmings but, if you’re feeling lazy or pressed, use hot water instead.

The recipe calls for freshly squeezed lime juice but Guiriec used freshly squeezed lemon juice when he prepared the salad for us because he had no limes — and I loved the bright, fresh taste. I replicated the dish at home and chose to use lemon.

Vegetable stock

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup onion trimmings

1/2 cup chopped carrot

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup mushroom trimmings

2 cloves garlic

10 cups water

6 sprigs fresh parsley

1 sprig fresh thyme

Quinoa salad

1 tablespoon olive oil

3/4 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup white quinoa

1/2 cup red quinoa

3 star anise

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

2 ears corn

1 cup small green peas, cooked and cooled

1 cup small cauliflower florets, cooked and cooled

1 cup small broccoli florets, cooked and cooled

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley

1 bird’s-eye chili pepper, finely chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice — or lemon juice

To make the stock: In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Stir in onion trimmings, carrot, celery, mushroom trimmings and garlic. Reduce heat to low, cover and sweat vegetables until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Add water, parsley and thyme and bring to a gentle boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer gently until stock is flavourful, about an hour. Strain into a clean pot, discarding vegetables. Keep stock hot.

To prepare the quinoa and salad: in a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Stir in onion. reduce heat to low, cover and sweat onions until softened, about 5 minutes. Add white and red quinoa, star anise, and salt and pepper to taste. Blend well and add enough hot vegetable stock just to cover — no more.

Cook slowly, adding more stock, as needed, from time to time until quinoa is cooked but still slightly firm. Spread quinoa on a plate to stop the cooking process and let cool completely. Discard the star anise.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling water, boil the corn for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slowly in the cooking water.

This keeps the kernels from shrivelling as they cool and ensures that they stay juicy. Place each corn cob vertically in a large bowl and, holding it firmly, use a sharp knife to scrape the kernels from the cob.

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